Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

I used this book for week 34, a book about mental illness, after I started reading it on the recommendation of a book club member. She didn't say anything about it except that it was one of her all-time favorite books. I can see why! I am not a huge fan of Southern fiction but this was just perfect. It reminded me a lot of the movie, Steel Magnolias, with the eccentric group of women friends (and enemies) in the genteel South. The mental health component comes in with the protagonist wrestling with her mother's illness and her fears of the genetic consequences.